what is a hypothesis?

can someone give me an easy way to describe a hypothesis? its for my course and i am having trouble, someone help!!

http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn

The way you think something will turn out.

moreso scientifically speaking: it's an untested guess about something (using the the if-then form)

for example: if i mix red and yellow, then i will get orange.

the hypothesis DOES NOT have to be correct, you must test it out by mixing out red and yellow yourself to see what color comes out. if orange comes out, then in your conclusion, you will say that you have verified your hypothesis.

(but, JUST SAYING, if the color blue came out instead from red and yellow, the conclusion is that the hypothesis was wrong)

this isn't to be confused with a THESIS, which is a statement that is correct without needing any further testing. testing was already done numerous times beforehand and each time, the answer was the same.

lol, i'm sorry if i confused you in anyway, keep posting if you have trouble!

From Wikipedia:

is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon.

From Dictionary.com:

1. A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.

2. Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption.

3.The antecedent of a conditional statement.

its when you make a general statement about something then you set out to prove or disprove your statement. example -

All granny smith apples contain 10 grams of natural sugar is a hypothesis statement

then you find ways to measure the sugar content say like boiling it all down then running sugar test on the plain apple sauce mixture boiling did to it.

just pick any general idea that has to do with the topic of the class, if its psychology write down a general psychology statement

then set out to prove or disprove your statement.

An hypothesis is an *educated* guess based on the evidence given or at hand, to be tested for veracity.

In the hard sciences, it is tested in the null - or negative. That is to say, the hypothesis would be stated as "X is not Y." And the tests would go on to prove that. This is only in the hard sciences, that I'm aware of, anyway. (I'm a social scientist.)

Peace!

A hypothesis is a question you ask about a system. I have found that you don't really even know your true hypothesis until AFTER the research is done. You know you have questions about something but not necessarily what. After I did my research I found that it answered 4 general questions I had.

And if you go even further in depth the hypothesis isn't that you think something WILL effect something else but rather the opposite. Thats when it gets into stats. Your null hypothesis is you saying that A will not effect B. And you either accept it (a.k.a. find that it really doesn't have an effect) or reject it (a.k.a. your results were significant).

Like one of my hypotheses when doing aquatic ecology research was that there would be no difference in size classes of aquatic insects. So my null hypothesis was that there would be no effect. Does that make sense?

All I ask is please don't ask about P values lol